West Midlands hospital improves in key areas after inspection - but has 'more work to do'
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found improvements in four services at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, after inspections in February and March.
Inspectors looked at maternity, medical care, services for children and young people, and urgent and emergency services at the hospital, which is run by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust which also runs the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
A previous inspection last year ordered bosses to make 'rapid improvements' after watchdogs raised concerns about people's safety.
The overall rating for medical care has improved from inadequate to requires improvement, while how well-led the service is has improved from inadequate to good.
And the overall rating for urgent and emergency care, and safety, have improved from inadequate to requires improvement, while how well-led the service is has improved from inadequate to good.
But the overall rating for maternity has again been rated as requires improvement, although that for how well-led the service is has improved from inadequate to requires improvement.
As well as the follow up visit, the CQC inspected children and young people’s services at the hospital for the first time.
The overall rating, and those for how effective, caring, responsive and well-led the children and young people's service is, were good. How safe the service is has been rated requires improvement.
CQC inspectors found one breach of regulation related to person centred care in medical care, three breaches related to safe care and treatment in medical care, maternity, and in urgent and emergency services due to crowding and poor patient flow.
It also found one breach related to good governance in maternity. CQC has told the trust to submit an action plan showing what action it is taking in response to these concerns.
Amanda Lyndon, CQC deputy director of operations in the Midlands, said: “During our inspection at Good Hope Hospital, we found leaders had improved their management of services leading to people experiencing care that better reflected their needs.
"The trust took a proactive approach to using learning and improving services, which was embedded across the areas we inspected.
"But it has more work to do to make sure that people are being kept safe and staff have the tools they need to provide consistent support.
“The trust had improved the leadership and culture of urgent and emergency care services.
"Staff continued to face challenges because of the high demand and pressure across the whole health and care system, but the trust had still made progress through improvements they had implemented.
“Overall, staff, leaders and people using services at Good Hope Hospital should be encouraged by the improvements we saw.
"We found many areas of good practice, and leaders should build on this by continuing to make improvements in the areas we have told them to.”
